Tim Pawlenty kicked off his presidential campaign Monday with a two-minute Facebook video that highlights his blue-collar background. He’s running as a conservative populist, the son of a truck driver, a kid who grew up in the stockyards of South St. Paul.

But the former two-term Minnesota governor’s path to the GOP nomination might have less to do with his working-class roots than with the space he occupies in the 2012 field: Pawlenty, the first bona fide GOP hopeful to formally create an exploratory committee, has an opening as the least objectionable candidate.

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POLITICO 44

The idea is to present himself as a compromise candidate for fiscal and social conservatives, without the baggage of his rivals.

“He is a guy who can comfortably unify the entire conservative coalition, and it’s important to think of it in those terms,” said former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber, one of Pawlenty’s most prominent supporters. “He can unite the coalition that it takes to elect a Republican probably as well, or better, than anyone I can think of.”

“He has a record on fiscal issues as governor that will make him quite attractive to the tea party fiscal types, to the anti-tax people,” Weber added. “He’s also a member of an evangelical church, pastored by the president of the National Association of Evangelicals.”

Pawlenty, 50, is betting that jumping in early will improve his name ID and position him as a top tier contender in a wide open race that lacks a strong front-runner. It’s a contest he’s been preparing for intently since John McCain passed him over for the vice presidential nomination in 2008.

By forming an exploratory committee, Pawlenty can begin raising money that can directly fund a presidential race.

For the former governor, early success in Iowa, which neighbors his home state, will be critical to his hopes of sustaining his candidacy through next February. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is the favorite to win the following week in New Hampshire.

Former Republican National Committee political director Mike DuHaime, who ran New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign in 2008, said Pawlenty will be in a position to win Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.

“A win in Iowa would allow him to compete in the rest of the early states and then in the second round,” said DuHaime, who has not committed to any candidate for 2012. “If you’re Tim Pawlenty, you don’t need to win every one of the early states. If he were to win Iowa, then he has the potential to be one of the two or three people who come out of the early states.”

Tim Pawlenty kicked off his presidential campaign Monday with a two-minute Facebook video that highlights his blue-collar background. He’s running as a conservative populist, the son of a truck driver, a kid who grew up in the stockyards of South St. Paul.

President Obama should be tried in the Hague as a war criminal. Certainly at a minimum i expect the worldwide leftist movement to spill out onto the streets this weekend in protest of his repeated war criminal activities:

1. Guantanamo is still open and, as such, terrorist are being attracted every day to the cause of attacking the United States and their allies.

2. LIbya has been attacked by the United States with no imminent attack by Libya on the United States.

3. The war in Afghanistan has been significantly expanded by Obama's direct authorization

4. Soldiers under his command have been taking pictures of the enemy they have gunned down. They are using this pictures as trophies.

5. Civilians are being killed in Pakistan, Libya, Afghanistan and many other muslim countries under the direct authorization of the Messiah.

And you would think it was George Bush in office. Oh no that isn't true because if Bush was in office the idiotic looney left would be up in arms. They would take to the street and demand that Bush be tried as a war criminal. And now what does the left do: they honor Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Thanks God for the looney left throughout the world. As it has been noted on many an occasion the only good liberal is a dead liberal because dead liberals can no longer lie.

HOW MANY MORE CIVILIANS MUST DIE OBAMA UNDER YOUR DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP?

HOW MANY ORPHANS MUST SURVIVE THE BOMBS AND BULLETS YOU OBAMA AUTHORIZE TO BE SENT OVER TO THE MIDDLE EAST?

HOW MANY MORE TROPHY PHOTOS WILL BE TAKEN BY YOUR SOLDIERS OBAMA OF MURDERED INNOCENT CIVILIANS?

HOW MANY MORE NOBEL PEACE PRIZES WILL THE WAR CRIMINAL OBAMA BE GIVEN?

I don't think the fact that he took away "lifetime health benefits for some bus drivers" will make him a man of the people. More likely the opposite. Pawlenty is too timid for the Republican racists and theocrats. He's too timid or civilized for most Republicans, who trend more to hot, hyped-angry ideologues that prey on voters' fears and hate. If Pawlenty tries to become the passionate critic and emotional manipulator, he will have the same credibility problem Romney has. If Pawlenty does end up some sort of compromise candidate nominee, then the charisma race between Pawlenty and Obama will be like that between the flashlight and the sun.

I don't vote for "social conservatives", no matter how quiet they are on the issues, & in fact, the more quiet they are, the more suspicious I am of them. So, I actually distrust Pawlenty even more than I do a good ol' boy like Mike Hucksterbee, because at least I know from which corner of left field Hucksterbee is coming.

va_22033: Mar. 21, 2011 - 7:49 PM EST

And you would think it was George Bush in office. Oh no that isn't true because if Bush was in office the idiotic looney left would be up in arms. They would take to the street and demand that Bush be tried as a war criminal. And now what does the left do: they honor Obama with the Nobel Peace Prize.

I hate to say it, but there is some truth to this.

OTOH, the biggest truth to is the hypocrisy of both the left & the right wing. Because, when Bush did this stuff, the left wing thought it was "war crimes" & demanded trials, but the right wing insisted it was all totally legit. But now that Obama is President, the left wing goes silent, & the right wing backtracks & uses the exact same arguments it rejected, during the Bush administration, against Obama.

IMO, both sides are worthless.

There's also one thing lots of right-wingers refuse to acknowledge. See, 2.5 years ago, just before the 2008 election, I argued that very little would actually change from the Bush years, regardless of whether Obama or McCain won. That has very largely been proved; obviously I wasn't entirely accurate, but I think my prediction was more accurate than not. I say all this, because it puts the lie to all the claims made by right-wingers that Obama hates America & wants to destroy this country. Clearly, if he's doing largely the same thing Bush did, then either he doesn't hate America & want to destroy it .... or else, Bush & McCain did, & do.

People on both sides need to grow up & stop acting like little kids in a playground. America deserves better than this level of nonsense rhetoric. However, you can bet both sides will continue to make these same ridiculous charges, & I think the 2012 elections, as a result, are going to be the result of a very ugly campaign process.

How hard can it be to beat a Muslim, dithering Obama that destroyed our economy?

President Obama is a Christian and will be no matter how many times you mistakenly call him a Muslim. Second, it was Republican policies that caused our Great Recession. Remember, the Great Crash occurred in October 2008 under Bush/Cheney. The economy hemorrhaged some half-million jobs a month, including the month Bush handed over the White House keys to Obama. Obama saved US from another Republican Great Depression and is leading a growing economy (13 successive months).

How hard can it be to beat a Muslim, dithering Obama that destroyed our economy?

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President Obama is a Christian and will be no matter how many times you mistakenly call him a Muslim. Second, it was Republican policies that caused our Great Recession. Remember, the Great Crash occurred in October 2008 under Bush/Cheney. The economy hemorrhaged some half-million jobs a month, including the month Bush handed over the White House keys to Obama. Obama saved US from another Republican Great Depression and is leading a growing economy (13 successive months).

Roameo: "Mistakenly?" they willfully call Obama a Muslim, not mistakenly. they know the truth and it means zero to them. I agree that the GOWP nomination will come down to Burl "Gopher" Smith Pawlenty and Willard M. Romney. both have the charisma of lint. however, they look presidential, whatever that means. I mean do you remember how the allegedly liberal media torpedoed the Dean campaign in 04' because the scream wasnt befitting of a president? anyway, the GOWP is smart enough to know the theocratic simpleton from Wasilla and the Constitutional scholar Bachhoe are unelectable, as is the adulterous hypocrite Gingrich, Grand Dragon Barbour and the rest of the sorry GOWP lot.